Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2015

Overall, the total value of the top 100 global brands rose in value by 14% over the prior year to $3.3 trillion bringing it to its highest level ever. In fact, since the list debuted in 2006, the total value of the top 100 global brands has risen by 126%.

Over the past decade, the 100 brands ranked as the most valuable in the world have traded places on the list, but only four or five brands (42 in total) entered or dropped off of the list each year. Since the ranking began, the fast food category has seen the most brand value growth (up 252%) followed by beer (up 183%), technology (up 175%), apparel (up 139%) and telecom providers (up 136%).

Brand Value Trends

Trends seen in recent years suggest that the categories that will see the most brand value growth over the next ten years will be quite different. This year alone, McDonald’s lost 5% of its brand value dropping from fifth to ninth place while tech companies like Apple and Facebook gained 67% and 99% in brand value.

Facebook was the top brand value riser this year followed by Apple and Intel (58% increase). From the category perspective, technology and retail each grew in brand value by 24%—the highest category growth rates of 2015.

The Top 10 Most Valuable Global Brands

The top 10 brands on the 2015 list includes the same brands that were in the top 10 on the 2014 list except for two—Amazon, which dropped to 14th place, and Verizon, which jumped to 7th place. There was some position shifting among the top 10 most valuable brands in the world though.

Here are the top 10 for 2015:

Apple: $246.9 billion (+67%); ranked in 2nd place in 2014

Google: $173.6 billion (+9%); ranked in 1st place in 2014

Microsoft: $115.5 billion (+28%); ranked in 4th place in 2014

IBM: $93.9 billion (-13%); ranked in 3rd place in 2014

VISA: $91.9 billion (+16%); ranked in 7th place in 2014

AT&T: $89.5 billion (+15%); ranked in 8th place in 2014

Verizon: $86.0 billion (+36%); ranked in 11th place in 2014

Coca-Cola: $83.8 billion (+4%); ranked in 6th place in 2014

McDonald’s: $81.2 billion (-5%); ranked in 5th place in 2014

Marlboro: $80.3 (+19%); ranked in 9th place in 2014

Interesting Brand Value Facts

Here are some highlights from the Millward Brown report about the BrandZ top 100 most valuable brands in the world for 2015 that are particularly interesting and further show how trends in brand value are evolving:

Apple had the largest quarterly profit ever recorded for a public company of $18 billion thanks to the iPhone 6.

Since 2013, Facebook’s brand value has increased 167%.

After a record-breaking IPO, Alibaba entered the ranking for the first time at #13—above two of its top competitors, Amazon and Walmart.

Brands from North America comprise two-thirds of the list while 20% are from the Asia-Pacific region which is rising quickly. Specifically, brands from China make up 13% of the list (14 brands in total). The number of brands from Europe dropped from 2014, so in 2015, they accounted for 24% of the brands in the top 100 ranking.

Only 21 of the brands in the top 100 lost value during the past 12 months.

You can find more statistics from the report in the visualization below. Click the image to view it at full size, and follow the link at the beginning of this article to read the full report from Millward Brown.

Susan Gunelius, MBA is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications and strategic branding company.
Through KeySplash Creative, Susan offers branding and social media consulting services as well as copywriting, content writing, and a long list of additional communications and brand messaging services.
Susan has written 10 marketing-related books through some of the largest and most recognized publishers in the world, including the highly popular Content Marketing for Dummies, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps, Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, and more.
She writes about marketing for Forbes.com and Entrepreneur.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on a long list of business media websites, including MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, Bloomberg.com, and many more.